Summary
Elon Musk has filed a court injunction to block OpenAI’s transition to a fully for-profit business and prevent it from allegedly restricting investors from supporting competitors like his AI startup, xAI.
Musk accuses OpenAI and Microsoft of antitrust violations, claiming they used “group boycotts” to limit funding for rivals while benefitting from shared sensitive information.
OpenAI dismissed the allegations as baseless. The legal battle reflects escalating competition in the booming generative AI industry, valued at $157 billion, with Musk’s xAI emerging as a new challenger.
SpaceX exists only because of NASA.
The Merlin engine is based on an engine developed by NASA, they even started by buying the exact same turbopumps directly from NASA’s subcontractor
The initial funding from Musk ($100 million) allowed SpaceX to develop the Falcon 1, in 2008 they only reached orbit on its 4th attempt. At this point they had no money left, a small rocket with a terrible track record and no customers for it.
3 months later NASA awarded a $1.6 billion contract to SpaceX for the ISS resupply ! This is what allowed then to continue and develop the Falcon 9.
You’re leaving off the part that NASA was wanting to incentivize private space companies. They opened up a competition to win some contracts and SpaceX wanted them. A requirement was reaching orbit. They succeeded, so they won some contracts.
It’s not like NASA just out of the blue decided to save SpaceX after Musk used the last of his money. They made an open offer, SpaceX fought for and won what they got. If that 4th rocket had failed, they’d have been toast, but it didn’t.
Edit: I guess I should add that SpaceX protested NASA when they did a sole source contract and NASA quickly revoked the contract, which led to NASA creating the program they then competed in. And if you think this is a bad thing its generally not. Sole source contracts aren’t competitive and will usually cost the government more. Ultimately that company they chose went bankrupt.